The Star Wars saga is nothing if not the persistent struggle between the Light and Dark, good and evil, right and wrong. These are notions we can all relate to, which we all know is part of why Star Wars is such a phenomenon. But watching The Force Awakens, I was confronted with a new conflict: my needs/wants as a fan and my rejection of fan ownership.

I’ve long fought against the notion that any property or character ever “belongs” to the fans, but never more so than Star Wars. A while back, when the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney happened, I wrote this “thank you” letter to George Lucas for IGN:

“I’ve often read of your desire to achieve financial independence to retire and focus on other things, including experimental films, and I just want to say that I’m enormously happy that everything you’ve worked for – everything that Star Wars has afforded you – has finally arrived.

I work on the Internet, which I’m sure you know hasn’t always been home to the nicest of ‘fans.’ They often forget that the only reason they’re so passionate about Star Wars in the first place is because of what you accomplished. But I want you to know that your unwavering vision for Star Wars and your resistance to let the fans take ownership of it has reminded me that art, no matter how commercially viable or successful, always, always, always goes back to the creator’s vision. It is a practice that I’ve taken great pride in trying to bring to any work I do, whether it be fiction or otherwise.”

It goes back to something my dad said when I was a teenager that has never left me: we were in the car, listening to Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged, and there’s a moment in “Pennyroyal Tea” where Kurt Cobain mixes up lyrics and instead of saying the line “Sit and drink pennyroyal tea,” he flips it with the following line (“I’m anemic royalty”) and winds up with a mash-up of both: “I’m anem-ennyroyal tea.”

I remember chuckling and, being a thirteen year old that wanted to prove how invested and observant I was, pointed this moment out to my father, saying that Kurt messed up. What he said in response will never leave me: “How can he screw it up when he’s the one that wrote the song?”

And that’s the mentality I’ve held ever since, particularly when it comes to Star Wars. I’ve always defended the Special Editions, for example, not because I personally think all of the changes are great, but because it’s the creator that’s making them. It’s his vision, fans be damned, and that is what I respect and why I can swallow that Jabba scene in A New Hope even though it’s silly and superfluous.

The best thing that’s ever happened.

But where this really holds true as it relates to The Force Awakens is the prequel trilogy. I’m a staunch prequel defender; this isn’t news to anyone. I recognize their flaws, but they do something that The Force Awakens was terrified to do: something different. They expanded the Star Wars universe by showing us the political climate, introducing an alternative view of the Force, questioning the nobility of the Jedi, and introducing different genres to the tapestry — hints of noir, war documentary, political thriller, and melodramatic romance all make their way into the prequel trilogy. Execution is another discussion — I objectively recognize that not all of these things are successful — but it’s the attempt that I appreciate more than anything. The fact that George Lucas could have easily made something like The Force Awakens but didn’t is grounds enough for enormous respect.

Of The Force Awakens, Lucas is quoted as saying: “I think the fans are going to love it. It’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for.” This is what breaks my heart and fills me with conflict like Luke confronting the Emperor. He’s right. The Force Awakens has all the tentpoles of what one would consider “classic” Star Wars.

It uses A New Hope as a clear template for its plot to give a sense of familiarity and comfort while introducing new characters and the continuance of the Skywalker saga. And, as a fan, I love that. It’s what I’ve been waiting for, it’s half of what occupies my brain at any given moment on any given day. And it’s for this reason I’m 100% invested in what Disney is doing; I read all of the comics, I read all of the novels, and lord knows I’ll be at all of the movies multiple times.

But it’s hard for me to look at The Force Awakens as anything more than a new, high budget version of what the Expanded Universe had been doing for years. Taking the conceit of what Lucas created and expounding upon it, giving fans “the same but different” over and over again. To me, Star Wars is George Lucas and without him it’s just another riff on the scale.

While I genuinely did enjoy The Force Awakens and I’ll be waiting with baited breath for Episode VIII, it’s my hope that those who found the new film to be a little too safe or a little too familiar will at least reconsider the ambition and intention of the prequels. Lucas’ willingness to — knowingly — take fan expectations and set them aside to pursue his own vision, sink or swim.

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/why-star-wars-the-force-awakens-breaks-my-heart/feed/5delorean27return02The best thing that's ever happened. On Asking for Advicehttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/on-asking-for-advice/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/on-asking-for-advice/#commentsMon, 21 Sep 2015 16:20:40 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1556Continue reading →]]>I’ll put this out there: I love helping out emerging creators and giving advice where I can. I’m by no means an expert in the field, but I certainly have career experience and have been through many parts of the process that newer creators have not. I’m very available — my email is public, my podcast has a voicemail line, I’m active on Twitter and Tumblr; the point is, it’s not hard to throw questions my way, and more often than not, you’ll get an answer in a timely fashion.

I think it’s imperative that we pay it forward as a community and help each other out whenever possible. I was helped — still am — by creator friends that have been down the path before me, and I feel comfortable reaching out to them for advice or to address concerns about something going on in my career (and sometimes: life).

But asking for advice and asking for favors are two very different things. I read friends’ comics all the time. I love it. I love reading things in their early stages and offering my input. And they do it for me. Like most writers (of any medium), I have friends and loved ones that I trust to read shit and give me honest feedback. It’s invaluable and something I recommend for anyone to have.

I’ve also introduced friends and collaborators to people that they should know, and have had the same done for me, but these are actual in-the-flesh friends and people that I have a positive working relationship with. That’s “networking.” That’s how these sorts of things go. Engage in the community, be a part of it, and get to know people on a level deeper than “who can do something for me?”

Over the weekend, I got an e-mail from someone who claimed that we had interacted on Twitter once and offered some pleasantries regarding Pawn Shop (still available for pre-order!). This was immediately followed by an elevator pitch for a comic he was working on and an inquiry if Pawn Shop’s publisher would be interested in it and, if it was okay, he’d send me pages.

I’m sorry, but no, it’s definitely not okay — for many reasons.

Forget the fact that I’d be taking time away from my own work, forget the fact that I also have a life and family that is far more important, forget the fact that editing is not work I do for free for randos on the Internet — forget all of that — and this is simply not how networking works. Sending your pitches blindly to a stranger you’ve maybe talked to once online — let alone asking them to pitch it FOR you to a publisher — is NOT okay, neither legally nor as a professional. A huge part of pitching is doing your research about the publisher (my pal Mike Moreci has a great piece on pitching over at his website), which includes getting to know the people that run the company.

When I suggested to this person that he go to shows and introduce himself, he seemed to reject the idea. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s the legwork. No matter who you’re introduced to or who your friends are, there’s no getting around doing the work. Even if we were best friends and I had all of the connections in the world to get you in wherever you wanted, the work is on you.

As a one time folly, this would be forgivable. Unfortunately, I did a quick search of my email archives and found that he’d actually emailed me once before a couple of years ago, with a full pitch document and asking if a publisher I was working with at the time would publish it. I don’t remember this interaction at all, but my response was the same as it was this weekend. To paraphrase: “I can’t help you and you’re going about this the wrong way.”

So, new creators, the point is: learn from your mistakes. When you ask someone for advice and they give it to you — even if it’s not what you expected or the favor you wanted — take it. Don’t try the same method and expect a different result. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

Update 11/12/15: Another method that never works: spamming creators on social media. It’s not hard to see that you’re copying and pasting the same message to dozens of people. That’ll only get you blocked.

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/on-asking-for-advice/feed/1delorean27Punk Rock Josie & the Pussycatshttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/punk-rock-josie-and-the-pussycats/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/punk-rock-josie-and-the-pussycats/#respondMon, 17 Aug 2015 18:48:08 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1538Continue reading →]]>Part of being a writer in comics is pitching. Pitching, pitching, pitching. Sometimes that’s for your creator-owned stuff, sometimes it’s at the request of a publisher for a particular property, and sometimes it’s just a passion project that you pitch to a publisher that you have a relationship with.

In this instance, it’s the latter — my co-creator on CAPTAIN ULTIMATE, Ben Bailey, and I wrote a Sonic the Hedgehog back-up in 2014 for Archie Comics. After the success of AFTERLIFE WITH ARCHIE and an impending ARCHIE revamp on the horizon, we took it upon ourselves to craft a new take on what is, I think, the best Archie property: JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS.

So obviously nothing ever came of this — we tinkered with the idea of revising it into a creator-owned project, but in the time since we wrote this, “punk rock takes” on things have become all the rage and by the time our book would come out, it’ll most definitely be old hat.

So instead, we thought it’d be fun to just show off the pitch!

At the very least, you can enjoy this awesome playlist we made to accompany your reading.

The goal of this series is to reanimate Josie and the Pussycats with the blood of punk rock in their veins. We intend to make this a character-driven road epic with a focus on the relationships of Josie, Valerie, and Melody — known collectively as The Pussycats — why they play together, why they need each other, and why they don’t give a f@#% about anything else.

We want to use our own experiences playing and touring in bands to bring authenticity to Josie’s world.

CONCEPT

The high concept of our series revolves around the way Josie sees the world. She sees people as they really are inside — monsters, thieves, con artists, abusers, etc. — sort of like Roddy Piper in They Live when he’s wearing those special sunglasses, except she can’t turn it off… unless she’s playing music.

Playing fast and furious is the only way to exorcise the demons she sees around her. The only two people in the world that she sees as “pure” are her bandmates and best friends, Valerie and Melody.

THEMES

We want to avoid typical “band story” tropes — no power trips or ego battles or quests for fame and fortune. This a story about the power of music, friendship, DIY attitudes, and how all of that holds you together when everything else in the world tears you down. We want to show that alienation doesn’t always come from the same place. More importantly, we want to use that idea to show that there’s always somewhere — in this case, punk rock – that you belong.

MAIN CHARACTERS

JOSIE (guitar/vox) — Josie comes from a good home, but she’s tortured by the way she sees the world. The twisted images haunt her and she can only expel them through her music. It literally chases away the demons. She’s compassionate and empathetic, which intensifies the visions around her when she sees someone in need. She’s a true, raw talent when it comes to songwriting, like a Kurt Cobain or a John Lennon.

VALERIE (bass) — Valerie is the first “real” person Josie sees. They meet as youths and quickly bond over a love of punk rock. Valerie comes from a broken home and is often forced to protect her sisters from their father. She’s street tough, a bit of a hot head, and sees herself as a protector to the other Pussycats while they’re on the road.

MELODY (drums/vox) — After their first drummer didn’t work out, Josie and Valerie met Melody at a show and the trio quickly bonded. Melody grew up in a stifling conservative household and was sent to a camp for conversion therapy to “fix” her homosexual tendencies. Thanks to her friend Kevin at camp, she discovered punk rock and found her path. (“They kept saying I was confused, but they’re f%#*ing confused. I know exactly who I am.”) Because of this, she’s often the most level-headed member of the band.

PEPPER — Pepper is The Pussycats’ original drummer, but her jealousy of Josie’s talent as a songwriter and desire for fame quickly starts eating at her. Though they’ve been friends since elementary school, Josie begins to see the monsters emerging from Pepper as time wears on and ultimately decides to cut her from the band. Pepper leaves town and starts a new band of her own.

BRIGITTE REILLY — Punk rock royalty, front woman for The Whatevers, Brigitte is the earliest inspiration for the girls of The Pussycats. It was her music that led them to their instruments — and to each other — despite their varied backgrounds. The Whatevers have been broken up for decades, but Brigitte pulls the band back together for one more show when the NYC punk club that gave them their start is about to go out of business.

STORY

Josie, Valerie, and Melody learn that their punk rock idol, Brigitte Reilly, is reuniting The Whatevers for the first time in 20 years to play the final show at a famous New York City punk club that’s about to become the latest addition to a chain of restaurants. The Pussycats head out on the road, battling literal demons, family drama, psycho ex-bandmates, money problems, cops, and roadside oddities along the way. We have flashbacks to the band’s history — how they met, how they formed, how they discovered punk rock.

When they finally reach NYC, they wind up having to help some people and miss the show completely. They get there in time to catch Brigitte packing up her gear into her van and have a conversation, one that underscores the point of the entire series — the importance of music and how the only thing that matters is that you inspire others to carry the torch. We learn that Brigitte sees the world the same way Josie does. (“It doesn’t get better. But you play hard enough, you play fast enough, and you keep the demons at bay.”)

ISSUE BREAKDOWN

#1 – Escaping a town that never understood them, The Pussycats hit the road on a cross-country road trip. Through flashbacks we learn about the forces that drove them onto the road and what keeps them together. The issue opens with them running out of gas, pushing their van to the nearest one-exit town in the middle of nowhere and trying to figure out how they’re going to get gas money and make it to the next show. Fortunately, a raging punk rock house party provides the perfect impromptu gig and they scrape together enough cash to fill up the tank.

#2 – After being pulled over in a small town, the van is impounded by the local sheriff. Stranded and desperate, the girls meet the locals and struggle to make a plan that’ll get them back on the road. Fortunately, one of the people they befriend is the young daughter of the sheriff. In her eyes, Josie and crew are the coolest ladies she’s ever met. In exchange for a record and t-shirt, she steals her dad’s keys and helps The Pussycats steal back their impounded van.

#3 – As all touring bands know, waiting for the show to start in some town you don’t know is the worst part of the job. The Pussycats have seven hours before their set, and they have nowhere to go and no money to spend, so they wait. They try to play some games, tell each other stories, and reminisce about the past, but time inconsiderably refuses to tick by. When you just want to live your life in furious downstrokes, waiting for the lights to lower and the feedback to kick in feels like an eternity.

#4 – When some do-gooder fans offer The Pussycats a place to crash after a show in a big city, they learn that these kids are about to be kicked out of their loft — along with every other tenant — due to their landlord selling the space to some lame new-age start-up. Eager to pay back the fans for their hospitality, they arrange a hardcore show for their last night in the loft, painting the building with piss, puke, and punk rock to welcome the landlord’s new tenants.

#5 – Every band has casualties. In The Pussycats it was Pepper, former drummer and best friend that was later replaced by Melody. As the gang arrives at their last gig before NYC, they find themselves on the bill opening for Pepper’s new band, forcing them to confront past drama. The Pussycats endure the most brutal show of their lives thanks to Pepper’s meddling, including thrown beer bottles, cigarettes, and unmentionables. They come out of it bruised and battered and smiling. Pepper tries to screw them out of their cut of the door, but the lone Pussycats fan in the crowd makes sure that doesn’t happen.

#6 – The girls stop for breakfast before heading into NYC for The Whatevers’ big show. They bump into the fan from the night before, Jeremy, and get caught up in a situation between a waitress and her abusive husband. The Pussycats get physically involved before Jeremy intervenes, revealing that he’s a cop. A nice cop, who knew?! Trouble is, the girls are now late for the show of a lifetime. By the time they arrive, the band has finished their set. The girls are crushed, but a chance chat with Brigitte as she packs up her gear leads Josie to the realization that all that matters is making music with her friends. When Valerie asks “What do we do now?” Josie turns and replies “The only thing we can do. We play.”

POTENTIAL FUTURE STORIES

Pepper’s new band hits big and as result, there’s added attention on The Pussycats as “Pepper’s first band.” How do Josie and company deal with the new, unwanted attention?

The girls have to head back home so Valerie can deal with a situation between her father and her sisters. How does the band deal with a problem that can’t be solved with an eff-you attitude?

Melody’s parents show up at The Pussycats’ doorstep, needing some sort of help, and Melody has to confront her issues with them.

MARKETING & PROMOTIONAL IDEAS

A punk rock playlist for every issue, listed in the back-matter with a link to Spotify.

Posters in the DIY punk style to hang in comic shops or give away at conventions.

Alternatively, the covers could promote whatever “show” is featured in that issue.

Package an issue with a punk-style Pussycats sticker or jacket patch.

Reach out to music media to stretch into a new area of mainstream coverage.

Real band cameos in the book, signings/release parties at famous punk clubs.

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/punk-rock-josie-and-the-pussycats/feed/0delorean27josie1josie2josie3josie4PAWN SHOP to be Published by Z2 Comics in the Fallhttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/pawn-shop-to-be-published-by-z2-comics-in-the-fall/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/pawn-shop-to-be-published-by-z2-comics-in-the-fall/#respondMon, 22 Jun 2015 20:26:55 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1485Continue reading →]]>I’m so pleased to say that Pawn Shop, by me and Sean Von Gorman, is being published by Z2 Comics this fall, as announced by Publishers Weekly earlier today.

The book is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and at your local book and comic stores. If you were a Kickstarter backer or purchased one of the self-published editions from us at some point, your support means the world! If you enjoyed it, we’d love if you could continue spreading the word and get your local shops to order a copy or just tell a friend!

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/pawn-shop-to-be-published-by-z2-comics-in-the-fall/feed/0delorean27PawnShop_SeriesLogoTo Die Will Be an Awfully Big Adventurehttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/game-of-thrones-death/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/game-of-thrones-death/#commentsMon, 15 Jun 2015 16:40:00 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1469Continue reading →]]>Spoilers for Game of Thrones. And early ’90s Superman comics, I guess.

Death in stories is important. Or at least, it should be.

Coming from comics, we’re used to death being a revolving door. Heroes and villains die frequently and eventually return. It’s part of the tapestry that makes superhero comics what they are. The impact of these deaths, when done well, is a source of great drama and character exploration. Their purpose is to reinvigorate the ongoing stories with a new status quo and open up new paths of storytelling. Likewise when the same characters return.

The most well-known example — and the best, I would argue — would be the death of Superman. By 1992 Superman had become sort of passe, an optimistic character in a pessimistic world. In an era of things like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, Superman had become almost anachronistic. The public’s wants seemed to be shifting, and this was reflected in Hollywood as much as in comics. 1987 delivered the ill-conceived and repugnant Superman IV: The Quest for Peace — an abysmal flop — while the grittier Dark Knight found smashing success in Tim Burton’s Batman only two years later. The era of the morally upstanding hero was done, it seemed, and the ’90s ushered in the era of the anti-heroes and grim avengers. More brooding, more bullets, more blood.

In a response to the shifting landscape, DC Comics opted to kill Superman in a grand battle with Doomsday, courtesy of the childhood-defining Superman (1987) #75, told entirely in splash pages by Dan Jurgens. The basic idea seemed to be: if people think Superman isn’t relevant, let’s take him away and show them why they’re wrong. Of course, the issue drove the public comic-crazy. It sold millions and is arguably responsible for the crash of the speculator market that would come later in the decade. People went nuts for it, newspapers ran obituaries, it made the national news… people cared about Superman, but it took his death to make them realize it. His death said something about who he was and what he meant to people.

DC kept the character out of his line of monthly titles for about a year and showed how Metropolis and the DC Universe at large responded to his absence. They introduced new characters that would go on to become beloved staples of the DCU — most notably Kon-El/Superboy (Connor Kent) and Steel (John Henry Irons). It allowed them to show why Superman was needed both within the DCU and in our real-world popular culture.

The reason I enjoy death in superhero comics is that because it’s a revolving door, the stakes can never really be “defeat the villain or die,” because that’s boring, right? If we know they can come back from the dead, then big deal. Die and come back and continue the fight. This makes creators stretch their imaginations and seek out stories that have stakes beyond life and death, find the paths to stories that wouldn’t exist without a character dying and/or resurrecting. When characters die, it should be important and in service to telling the most interesting story possible.

But that’s death at its finest; the flip side is death as a gimmick. Comics certainly don’t lack meaningless deaths. Death can be used as an easy way of creating the illusion of drama or worse, in an attempt at shock value, killing the “good guys” without really changing the stakes. It’s all subjective, of course, but I find it interesting that Game of Thrones, a TV show that is adamant about using death as a plot device, so consistently puts shock value over story and character.

I don’t read the books — I read the first installment and didn’t care to continue — but regardless of the intention or long game, I can’t deny that I’ve become numb towards any and all of the characters on this show. I imagine it’s different for fans of the books. Naturally, they’d bring more to the table and read into things far more than TV-only viewers. Much in the same way as I might watch the Harry Potter movies projecting my knowledge and devotion on screen despite many things not making it into the film, so too might a Song of Ice and Fire fan watch a death on Game of Thrones with the full impact of their fan attachment behind them. And that’s fantastic, but as merely a viewer, the show does little to make me feel anything or even get excited about the implications.

Ned’s death in season one was a shock and truly a blow; it raised the stakes in a big way for the Stark children and Westeros in general, but the show’s constant need to be abrasive has grown quite tiresome, beginning with the Red Wedding and continuing right on through the end of the most recent season. I don’t care anymore when a character dies; I feel nothing for them, and the show isn’t affected by it in any significant way other than water cooler talk and endless actor interviews about their exit from the show. The only thing I feel is annoyance that the show would try to pull the same shenanigans its been pulling for seasons upon seasons. Compare this to something like The Sopranos, where death was treated with respect and consequence, and it’s even more maddening how dismissive Game of Thrones is toward the subject and its viewers.

There are a few exceptions to this, but even then, the aftermath is disappointing. Ygritte’s death was powerful in the moment, though woefully unexplored after the fact. How did that affect Jon Snow? How did it change his perception of what it means to love and be loved? We don’t know, because the show didn’t care to explore it all that much. Now that he’s dead, we’ll never know and so it doesn’t matter. Oberyn’s death was particularly brutal because of Pedro Pascal’s pure likability, but the storyline that it led to — Jaime and Bronn in Dorne this season — ultimately resulted in little more than the presumed death of yet another character that we’d hardly seen until a few episodes previous.

Even if I don’t feel for the characters themselves, the hope would be that plot-wise the show would find a more interesting direction with the character gone — the Superman’s death scenario — but even there it has proven disappointing, save, again, for Ned’s death and the end of particular bad guys — Joffrey and Tywin spring to mind. Joffrey’s death set some things in motion with Tommen and Margaery (despite being disappointingly unresolved in Season 5) and Tywin’s death allowed Tyrion some independence from his family, not to mention a means to an end of finally bringing the two separate stories of Westeros and Daenerys together at last.

There are plenty of things about Game of Thrones that I love — implied resurrections via unnatural means, superhero style, is one of them — but its insistence on constructing its “big moments” around “shocking” deaths rather than interesting character moments or legitimate plot twists has become uninspired and unfulfilling. One could argue that a big death is a plot twist, and it certainly can be (again, see Ned Stark) but given that they’ve been adhering to this formula for all five seasons now, its become predictable instead of thrilling. As a viewer, I’ve become tone deaf, immune, and Jon Snow’s death is just one more to add to the pile for now. While they may — and I hope they do — prove me wrong, the show’s track record doesn’t fill me with much optimism.

Game of Thrones doesn’t seem to respect death as a powerful device and it’s made the show feel stagnant despite the frequent turnover of cast members. A death should say something about the character it touches, in comics, in TV, or otherwise. Game of Thrones’ lack of follow through often makes it feel like it’s simply killing for sport.

Although, one reader-theory says Jon Snow could take over Ghost’s body or whatever, and if that’s the case, I’m on board.

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/06/15/game-of-thrones-death/feed/37delorean27Death_of_Superman_01Death_of_Superman_TPB-160thrones2o-GAME-OF-THRONES-CASTING-facebookIt Follows: A Nightmare Caught on Filmhttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/it-follows-a-nightmare-caught-on-film/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/it-follows-a-nightmare-caught-on-film/#respondSun, 29 Mar 2015 01:46:16 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1455Continue reading →]]>If you haven’t seen It Follows, there are spoilers here. I highly recommend avoiding this post until you have a chance to watch and unpack this movie. Not even because I’m spoiling it for you, but because I want you to spout your theories and your reads. Let’s dig into this shit.

It Follows is the modern horror movie that finally understands that over-explanation is, in fact, the removal of horror.

That writer/director David Robert Mitchell rejects any notion of explanation is why It Follows is as compelling as it is. In this interview with Yahoo! he has a lot of interesting things to say, but his quote “something from a nightmare can’t be explained” sums up his movie perfectly.

It Follows is a horror movie with something to say, but ultimately it’s up to the viewer to unpack what that might be. It could be read as an allegory for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, a celebration of monogamy, an exploration of true love, a condemnation of casual sex, the terrible effects of a non-present parent, the nature of death, facing the consequences of our choices, or… it could just be a nightmare caught on film. And there are no rules for a nightmare.

Another quote from Mitchell’s interview with Yahoo!:

The only rules that we hear are rules that we’re told by a character within the film, who has access to limited information. If you look at the film enough, you can start to understand how he may be figuring these things out and how he has gotten the information that he has. But you also have to understand that they’re not rules on a stone’s tablet; they’re a character’s best guess about what’s happening to them. So, you know, they seem mostly right. But for me, that’s kind of fun, in that there might be some gaps in information, some things that he doesn’t understand and neither do we.

This is something I found remarkable. Not only does it justify anything that might be a bridge too far, logistically — like the naked man on the rooftop — but just as nightmares often drift from scene to scene, so too does the movie. At points it feels like something has been omitted, but it hasn’t, not really. The threads are there but it’s up to the audience to connect them and make sense of them in the same way that we reconstruct our own dreams and decide how we might’ve thought it all up in the first place. This comes into play in a few key points, usually when sex is involved: when Greg is flirting with the unknown girl after he and Jay have sex, or when Jay wonders into the water toward the boat with three men, or when Paul cruises by the street corner hookers. In all instances we are left to deduce on our own, and either conclusion works.

The ending is the the most obvious example of this (about which Mitchell tells Yahoo!: “I mean, if you’re a teenager trying to stop a monster, you’re out of luck, honestly. You really are.” He has more to say about it in an interview with Vulture), where we’re left guessing whether or not “it” was defeated. Whether or not that’s “it” in that final shot. I would argue that it is. That the Jay/Paul relationship paid off; now they are a team, a unit. They can fend “it” off together. At least until they can’t anymore.

Something else I found even more interesting is how we never really see Jay’s mother’s face — Mitchell goes through great lengths to obscure it in almost every scene she appears. Later, during the kids’ botched attempt to stop the monster at the pool, “it” appears as a man we haven’t seen before. Jay can’t bring herself to describe it. In fact, it takes a few moments before Mitchell clues us in to what form “it” has taken, echoing Jay’s own sort of denial at what she’s seeing. It’s the first time Mitchell uses this approach, as we always see “it” from Jay’s POV (except for the one instance on the beach, but I would argue that was less about character and more about establishing the entity’s strength and abilities).

A scene later, we get a reveal of a picture frame in Jay’s house with the whole family — Jay, her sister, their mother, and their father… the same man from the pool scene. And that’s it. There are other clues throughout the movie — how the mother behaves, what Jay’s sister says about her, Greg’s mother’s reaction to Jay’s family while watching through the window. It’s the subtlety that intrigues me, because Mitchell paints an incredibly potent picture using minimal strokes. But it’s all an abstract painting; it evokes emotions rather than A-to-B-to-C story points. We can infer any number of scenarios from the information given to us. Combined with some of the forms “it” takes over the course of the film, these inferences can lead down very dark roads indeed.

Do a quick journey down the Reddit rabbit hole and you’ll find all sorts of theories about this movie. But aside from all of the ambiguity, It Follows is still powerful in its construction, basic themes, and portrayal of its characters. The camerawork and choreography is stunning. The soundtrack is fantastic. The performances are stellar. It respects the audience.

It’s an exploration of teenage sexuality and teenage love. It’s an exploration of family and friendship. These are teenagers making teenage errors, but with stakes that are a little higher than some high school drama. All of these characters feel and act real; they aren’t saying things real kids wouldn’t say or acting too mature for their age. They are applying their teenage real-world brains to other-wordly problems and getting realistic results.

There’s no “a-ha!” moment where our hero discovers some piece of information that will explain the origins of “it” or that will provide a solution to their troubles. Mitchell never provides an in for that, and as such, never provides an out either. And that hopelessness, that utter inevitability of defeat, that is the very essence of horror. There is no defeating what you don’t — can’t — understand. There is only surviving it for as long as you can.

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/it-follows-a-nightmare-caught-on-film/feed/0delorean27it-follows-cannes-2014-4It-Follows-Movie-PosterThe Power of Negotiation, or: You’re Worth Ithttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-power-of-negotiation-or-youre-worth-it/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-power-of-negotiation-or-youre-worth-it/#respondSun, 15 Mar 2015 20:18:15 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1442Continue reading →]]>I’m by no means a financially successful writer that should be giving any sort of contract advice to other comic book creators (though not for lack of trying), but I think it’s important for us all to share our experiences with these things and there’s far too little of it in the community (if you want great legal info on contracts from a creator-POV, check out Charles Soule’s postsonthesubject; the man is a talented writer as well as a lawyer).

So, I’ve done a few things here and there: some work-for-hire for publishers I love, some work-for-hire that I wish would disappear forever and burn in Creative Hell, creator-owned books with indie publishers and creator-owned books self-published with the help of Kickstarter. I’ve done work I’m proud of (except for the aforementioned stuff burning in Creative Hell) and have plenty more in the works.

More recently I’ve been collaborating with the amazing Joe Badon on a science-fiction project that I’ve been pitching as CHEERS meets BLADE RUNNER, called SPEAKEASY. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, Joe’s art is stunning and weird, and pretty much every publisher has passed on it. And that’s totally okay. The style is definitely outside of the mainstream wheelhouse, and coming from two no-names, I get it. We did, however, have a long (year-long, in fact) conversation with a smaller publisher about getting it out there, possibly this summer/fall. I’m not going to say who because it really doesn’t matter. They put out books that I really like and I would’ve been happy to work with them.

SPEAKEASY art by Joe Badon

However, where the conversation began was not where the conversation ended. It was nobody’s fault, really; plans/priorities for both sides changed. We went from being a 6-issue print release with a possibility of a Free Comic Book Day promotional comic to being a digital-only release with a trade, maybe. From their standpoint, I get it — digital releases cost significantly less, and if the book does well and creates buzz, the direct market might respond well to the physical trade paperback.

For a multitude of reasons, I wasn’t confident in this publisher’s ability to effectively market a digital-first book in a way that went above and beyond something we could accomplish ourselves. This meant we’d likely be doing a bulk of the promotion on our own, as most indie creators expect to, but it put me in a spot I’ve been in before. Why are we sharing profits with a publisher that isn’t really doing anything for us that we couldn’t do on our own through the channels available to us in 2015 — Comixology Submit, Kickstarter, Noisetrade, etc. — and keep the would-be publisher percentage to boot?

So with this in mind, Joe and I decided to just handle it ourselves — release the single issues digitally later this year and then maybe have a Kickstarter for a trade paperback. While I would be more than happy to hand the nitty-gritty details of publishing and managing money to someone else, I also want the final product to be something that reflects the hard work I put into it, both as a story and financial investment. When I look back on it I don’t want to be resentful of it because X or Y didn’t happen the way we had hoped or the way we had been promised it would. I’ve been down that road and have no desire to do so again.

SPEAKEASY art by Joe Badon

For comparison, I recently negotiated a contract for a different project that the publisher was incredibly amenable to. As creators, particularly on the bottom rung of a very tall ladder, it’s easy to forget that we have this power of negotiation. Publishers aren’t interested in you as much as they are interested in making money off the things you create. That alone gives you a firm foundation for negotiation; add to that the fact that it’s 2015 and it’s easier than ever to self-publish, and it all leads to one point: ask for what you want. If they can’t deliver what you’re looking for and you can’t find a middle ground that both sides are happy with, it’s okay to walk away, they’ll have to make their money someplace else. Your vision and your creativity is worth it. Don’t compromise to the point of discomfort just to “get it out there.”

Whether that means you seek out a different publisher or just do it yourself is up to you, but all that matters down the line is if you have a product that you look back on fondly. Creative satisfaction and financial satisfaction are two very different things and I’m speaking strictly of the former. But part of getting there means keeping the publishing process as free of drama as possible, which means nipping in the bud — like knowing when a contract isn’t for you.

It also means remembering that this project isn’t your masterpiece. SPEAKEASY is a fun story that I thought was perfect for Joe (we met doing a one-off story starring Shawn Aldridge’s VIC BOONE), but I don’t think it’s the greatest thing I will ever write and I’m sure Joe feels the same, art-wise. Because we always want to be better.

But I’ll be damned if we don’t look back at it fondly when all is said and done.

SPEAKEASY art by Joe Badon

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2015/03/15/the-power-of-negotiation-or-youre-worth-it/feed/0delorean27SEp8_crop2SPEAKEASY art by Joe BadonSPEAKEASY art by Joe BadonStar Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer: Unreasonable Over-analyzation and Wild Theorieshttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens-teaser-trailer-unreasonable-over-analyzation-and-wild-theories/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens-teaser-trailer-unreasonable-over-analyzation-and-wild-theories/#commentsSat, 29 Nov 2014 02:01:49 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1419Continue reading →]]>I’m perfectly aware there’s more than a few “breaking down the Episode VII teaser” pieces floating around on the Internet today. But Star Wars is the one thing I can’t resist picking apart and dissecting. And since for years I basically thought I’d never be able to do that again, I’m writing this more for myself than anyone. Because I’m so damn excited.

But if you’re reading, thanks for enduring another purely speculative and mostly uninformed orgasm of happy thoughts that only Star Wars can muster inside of me.

Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens

A couple of things: my thoughts are based on only what I see in the trailer itself or rumblings of unconfirmed rumors. I don’t have any inside scoops. I know as much as anyone else reading the rumor reports. I always take those rumors with a grain of salt (particularly ones that just sound absolutely ridiculous, of which there are plenty) and you should too. But who knows? I imagine there are bits and pieces of things that are accurate… from a certain point of view. And remember: Expanded Universe continuity is out the window and will not be adhered to, so anything is possible (and Boba Fett is deaaaaad).

In any case, while this is all theoretical and me just spit-balling… let’s go ahead and put a big ol’ SPOILER WARNING right here just in case anyone reads this and it turns out I was totally right.

Oh, and if you haven’t watched it yet, well duh:

SO, THAT PLANET

We all want to think this desert planet is Tatooine, right? It certainly seems likely; five out of six Star Wars movies (yes, there are six) visit the planet and the location is definitively tied to the Skywalker family. It’s where Anakin was born, it’s where Luke was raised, it’s where the whole adventure began. There even looks to be some scrap from podracers in the background at :30 when that cute little wheelie droid (we’ll call him Wheelie for now) is truckin’ along in the sand. They could certainly be spare ship parts or some moisture farming equipment or something, but my first instinct was pod engines.

However, rumors suggest that this is an all-new desert planet. While traditionally, introducing new planets means introducing new terrain and environments (otherwise, what’s really the point?), there’s no rule saying there can’t be more than one desert planet. It’s just kind of silly to use that kind of scenery and call it something different. That said, if it was definitely Tatooine, I feel like there would’ve been a shot of the planet’s iconic twin suns… even if just in passing as the Falcon zips through the sky at the teaser’s end.

THE EMPIRE

One of the hardest things to distance myself from concerning the 30+ years of Expanded Universe stuff since Return of the Jedi is the notion of the New Republic. I know the Ewok celebration suggested the nightmare was over, but remember that Luke blew up the Death Star in A New Hope and the fight was far from over… the Empire struck back.

Sure, the Emperor is dead and Vader redeemed, but the galaxy is a big place and Palpatine’s legion is strong. Say what you will about the Empire, the Governors kept their regions in line. Unified. By nature a rebellion is often chaos… what if the Rebels’ killing blow hurt the Empire but also unraveled the galaxy’s structure?

Keep in mind the Rebel Alliance was little more than one fleet at the time of their victory. Did all of the systems loyal to the Empire just give in without a fight? Did no one try to claim the Throne after word of the Emperor’s death came down? If not, would the Rebels really have the manpower to cleanly transition into a whole new government? Would they be able to fend off attacks from additional Imperial forces? Doubtful. No matter how many celebrations we see at the end of ROTJ, I just don’t buy that the change from Empire to New Republic would be smooth, particularly with most of the Empire’s forces still intact.

As we see in this teaser, it seems the Empire is still very much a factor. TIEs are attacking the Falcon. Stormtroopers seem to be upgraded. If not upgraded, definitely updated, which implies they’ve still got the resources to do so. They’ve even got new blasters. Compare that to the Rebel X-Wing squadron we see skimming across the water in the same rickety old ships. Still, it’s a disservice to the original trilogy to start The Force Awakens with an opening crawl that simply renders all of the events moot (“The Empire is still in charge!” or something), so it’s more likely that the effect will be felt via thinned Imperial ranks, galactic disorganization, and battles for loyalty.

One idea I’ve always been fascinated by are troops stationed in some remote part of the world (during World War II, for instance) that for one reason or another have been out of contact with the mainland, never learning that the war ended. What if there’s a sect of the Empire that never heard word of the Rebellion’s victory and thus kept the fight alive? There are a million possible explanations, but it seems to me the Empire is still a major player, if only under a different regime or perhaps a more even playing field with their opposition.

Given the title of the movie, it feels as though maybe the idea is the two are at something of a stalemate… until a new player(s) enter the game and quickly become sought after to help either side achieve victory. Not unlike Palpatine’s plan to try and turn Luke to the Dark Side in an effort to crush the Rebels.

JOHN BOYEGA

Boyega pops into frame, frantic. Scared. I have a couple of theories:

One, he’s with the Rebels and infiltrating the ranks of a stormtrooper squad for some reason. Or perhaps nothing as elaborate; maybe this is the middle of the movie and for some reason he’s in a stormtrooper getup (a la Luke and Han in A New Hope) and this is where stuff goes sour. Some have pointed out that in that shot of the troops lined up in the deployment ship (see above), the one in focus looks to be a little short for a stormstrooper…

The second theory, and the more interesting one, is that he’s just a regular stormtrooper cog. Just another recruit, but one with a heart of gold. Maybe he’s not unlike Luke was at the start of A New Hope; ready to join the Imperials just to escape his droll life. But maybe he comes into some information that he shouldn’t have; something the Empire wants and could turn the tide on the stalemate between the Empire and Rebels.

A holocron, or god help us, Luke’s severed hand/lightsaber from Empire Strikes Back as rumored; something that is of great importance to the new big bads. The Empire knows he’s got it, and they’re coming for him. Knowing he has to do the right thing, he turns coat and is suddenly an enemy of the state. You’ll notice the Imperial Probe Droid noises right as Boyega’s scene draws to a close. I don’t think he’s reporting in, I think he’s being hunted.

DAISY RIDLEY

Judging by her looks (raggedy speeder, salvaged clothing — her goggles are from a stormtrooper helmet), I’d be willing to bet she’s the everyman-type of this story and not Han and Leia’s daughter as some rumors have suggested. Perhaps she and Wheelie are the Han/Chewie or even the C-3PO/R2-D2 of this trilogy; they’re caught up in this adventure through pure happenstance.

Like street urchins or otherwise insignificant beings (in the grand scheme of the Star Wars Universe, I mean) that get roped into someone else’s fight. In this case, judging by the mutual location, I’d say she winds up helping out Boyega in some capacity. Maybe she helps him lay low from the Imperials, blend in with the locals?

If we’re going with this narrative, that Daisy and Wheelie are helping out Boyega and they’re trying to get him to the Rebels, maybe the Falcon at the end — being chased by Imperials, remember — is a part of this too? An extraction mission from maybe-Tatooine.

THAT LIGHTSABER THOUGH

We get a from-behind glimpse at what I imagine is a Sith… or a Sith wannabe, searching for a Master. The broadsword-style lightsaber he/she is carrying (the crossguard on traditional broadswords is meant to protect the wielder’s hands… and we all know how often hands are lost in saber duels, so this addition makes sense to me) certainly seems unstable.

The glow of the blade is frantic and flickering, atypical of the lightsabers we’re used to, and its ignition sound/hum is a bit off-kilter as well. Given the immense accuracy given to all of the other designs and sound effects in the teaser (probe droid, the Falcon’s whir, the TIE fighter blasters and engines, etc.), this is clearly on purpose. Perhaps this lightsaber’s construction is the work of an amateur or, alternatively, an extremely skilled Force-sensitive person that has augmented the traditional lightsaber in some way. Intriguing, no doubt.

LUKE

This isn’t relevant to the teaser, really, but writing all of this got me thinking about the rumor that Luke is the “evil cyborg” character that’s been seen in leaked concept art (below). That the big twist is Luke’s been gone for 30 years and become evil/gone nutso. While I don’t believe that everyone lived happily ever after post-ROTJ, I certainly don’t buy this. This would be a twist for twist’s sake, an M. Night movie; this would have to be a story we’d need to be told in full if we’re to buy it. We can’t cut to 30 years later, after the adventure of a lifetime, to a bunch of old farts that don’t speak anymore and where the hero of the galaxy has gone mad.

If this was Luke Skywaker, it’d be dumb.

That doesn’t ring true to the characters nor the universe. Maybe he’s become distant or even a hermit like Old Ben, but I don’t buy that he’d turn evil.. and not in a way that we’d have to learn about in an opening crawl or exposition or a tie-in novel. It’d be impossible to sell the idea that way with absolutely no precedent for it.

That being said, the Star Wars Episodes have only one hard through line… the Skywalkers. So it’s doubtful that Luke would be cast aside as just a supporting player (unless he’s got a kid… or a niece/nephew… but I still don’t figure Daisy Ridley as a Solo), but even still… doing a son/daughter/niece/nephew redeems their fallen Jedi father/uncle, well, we’ve been told that story already.

WHEELIE

So flipping cute, right?

As I mentioned, this is all purely fun speculation because I love thinking about Star Wars and we’re never going to be this in the dark about a Star Wars movie ever again. So let’s enjoy it. Let me know what you think of it all! Share the excitement — no negativity, please. Been there, done that.

And of course… May the Force be with you!

]]>https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/star-wars-episode-vii-the-force-awakens-teaser-trailer-unreasonable-over-analyzation-and-wild-theories/feed/5delorean27Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakensstar-wars-the-force-awakens-teaser-trailer-tattooine_79374600_sw4-stormstar-wars-the-force-awakens-millennium-falcon1-1280x536star-wars-the-force-awakens-john-boyegastar-wars-the-force-awakens-daisy-ridley-1280x536star-wars-the-force-awakens-lightsaber-1280x536If this was Luke Skywaker, it'd be dumb.star-wars-force-awakens-trailerThank You for Making RISE a Realityhttps://delorean27.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/thank-you-for-making-rise-a-reality/
https://delorean27.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/thank-you-for-making-rise-a-reality/#respondMon, 03 Nov 2014 17:29:55 +0000http://delorean27.wordpress.com/?p=1414Continue reading →]]>Over two years ago, I posted a piece calling out some severely inappropriate behavior by a comics retailer in my home state of MA. While I can’t say if his behavior has changed at all during this time, I can say that we followed through on the promise I made in that post — that we’d put together an anthology that uses comics to fight the type of bullying that, unfortunately, happens even within our own community of creators, retailers, and readers.

With the help of my co-editors Adam Pruett, Erica Schultz, and Kristopher White, we assembled an elite comic-book-making team ranging from superstar A-listers to exciting up-and-comers that donated their time, effort, and creative juices to create an anthology that we’re proud of with a variety of different styles and a theme that unites. It’s been a long, hard road to make this book a reality, with conversations with nearly every comic publisher you can think of, but we’re blessed to have teamed up with Northwest Press to get this book out the door.

A RISE cover by Sean Von Gorman

NWP launched a Kickstarter last month that ended yesterday — exceeding its goal of $10,000. The money was to cover printing costs to distribute these books to our partner organizations so they can give them away for free at schools and events. Our partners were also instrumental over these past two years of getting this thing together — GLAAD, Stand for the Silent, and PRISM Comics — and we can’t thank them enough.

So to everyone that kicked in or spread the word, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. This project has been a labor of love (and oftentimes a mountain of stress) for everyone involved, but knowing that people supported a project like this — getting it into the hands of kids for free — is amazing.

Head on over to the Kickstarter updates to see some of the stories that we’ve posted for a free sample!